Field Trip: The Carolina Honey Bee Company

Our Prairie Primer curriculum this year lends itself well to field trips.

For various reasons I have not chosen to pursue every suggested field trip option.

However, there are several field trip ideas that are just so handy, so nearby and so convenient, that it would be crazy to pass up the opportunity.

Like the maple syrup store the week before.

And last week – the honey store.

For us – it was our friendly store The Carolina Honey Bee Company – located right here in Travelers Rest.

All it took was a quick call and a simple question, “Can I bring my kids in for you to teach them a bit about bees?”

We received an enthusiastic yes and arranged a mutually convenient time.

(I love using local businesses.  We’re finding people passionate about their work and we’re meeting neighbors too.)

First we met a few thousand bees.

We learned about the honey-making and honey-gathering processes.

(Remember when I bought Kevin a plethora of bee supplies and such?)

And a few of the kids volunteered to try on the bee keeper’s gear.

London and Mosely didn’t feel the desire to don the head gear, but they did want a turn holding the smoker.

Bergen, however, was happy to get all suited up completely.

We had a little taste testing too – tupelo honey and local honey and creamed honey.

I’m a fan of all kinds of honey, but the local honey is my favorite.

And The Carolina Honey Bee Company has fabulously delicious honey.

We also got to meet a little queen bee.

It was a wonderful field trip excursion.

We were right in our hometown, we sampled and brought home local honey from local sellers and we were so close we were able to get home and complete all of our school day’s activities.

(I wanted to finish this post off with a funny little play on words – using honey or bee or sweet.  But I couldn’t think of any.  Why don’t you guys just provide me with the last line?)